


Slipping…

by Dorthea



Series: When lightning strikes... [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Barry Allen & Iris West Friendship, Barry Allen Whump, Character Death, Childhood Friends, Clyde Mardon (Mentioned) - Freeform, Coma, Comatose Barry Allen, Comic Book Science, Eddie Thawne Lives, Fake Science, Fear, Fear of Death, Friendship, Good Parent Joe West, Hurt, Hurt Barry Allen, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Iris West Loves Barry Allen, Journalist Iris West, Lightning - Freeform, Male-Female Friendship, Mark Mardon (Mentioned) - Freeform, Medical, Medical Conditions, Medical Device, Medical Inaccuracies, Medical Procedures, Medical Professionals, Medical Trauma, Minor Character Death, Near Death, Not Really Character Death, Open to Interpretation, Overprotective Joe West, POV David, POV David Singh, POV Iris West, POV Joe West, Panic, Panic Attacks, Paralysis, Parent Joe West, Particle Accelertor Explosion, Past Character Death, Police, Possible Character Death, Pre-Particle Accelerator Explosion (The Flash TV 2014), Pre-The Flash (TV 2014), Protective Iris West, Protective Joe West, Protective Parent Joe West, Sad, Sad Ending, Science, Temporary Character Death, Thunder and Lightning, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:07:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25289557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorthea/pseuds/Dorthea
Summary: Getting struck by lightning is the kind of thing people google, calculate when they have gotten just a bit to much to drink.1 in 15,300 people get struck by lightning. Back then it sounded like something that would never happen to her or anyone she knew. If her past self could see her now, she would know how wrong she was.“We are now being told to evacuate the facility”, read lamps are blinking an alarm is blaring in the background on the news. “The storm may have caused a malfunction to the primary Colling systems. Officials are now trying to shut down the particle accelerator, but so far has been unable to regain control of th-“.And then their whole life is changed...
Relationships: Barry Allen & Iris West, Barry Allen & Iris West & Joe West, Barry Allen & Joe West, David Singh & Joe West, Iris West & Joe West
Series: When lightning strikes... [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1832113
Comments: 2
Kudos: 68





	1. Lightning makes no sound until it strikes...

**Author's Note:**

> Felt like it was about time I did something with a different super hero. And Barry Allen, or the flash, from the TV show on CW felt in some way... unexplored.  
> This is a fanfiction based on scene I felt was missing in the show. Things that felt unexplored. I'm starting with the lightning, and we go and Explorer the coma. Who might visit our all's favorite CSI while his comatose. And hopefully I will explore different things later on? :)
> 
> Enjoy the first chapter! :D

David knew that the night the particle accelerator would turn on, was bound to be busy.  
  
With a hole city celebrating the creation of this new, mind blowing, technology. People were bound to get drunk. And drunk people, often got wild and sometimes dangerous to themselves and to the people around them.  
  
And while that was a minor issue they could probably deal with, what wasn’t so minor was the fact, that the Mardon brothers, Clyde and Mark had attacked less than 24 hours earlier. Robbery, a security guard was shot and killed. And their all beloved CSI, Bartholomew Henry Allen, had been late to the crime scene.  
  
David wasn’t sure if Barry had missed his train from Starling to Central, or if he somehow overslept. But one thing was for sure, when things were fixed, and the Mardon brother were put behind bars, Barry was going to learn that he couldn’t just leave whenever he wanted. Couldn’t just take to Starling because of a case he is interested in. And sure, David knows that Barry did a good, effective job in Starling. The captain of the SCPD were able to say as much. But he knows the real reason Barry went, was because of his mother’s murder and his father being in prison.  
  
It was maybe 10 minutes after the particle accelerator had turned on, the Eddi Thawne walked in the door with a man in his late thirties in handcuffs. Iris clinging to her laptop back following close behind, and Barry with an arm over her shoulder clearly to try and ground her while blood is running from his nose.  
  
“Laptop thief” Eddi says, “I’m going to take a statement from him and Iris West. Shouldn’t be a big deal” he assures David as he walks through the Station, Iris following him but leaving the laptop with Barry, who gives Iris a careful hug before standing there clearly unsure of what to do next.  
  
This also means David can take a chance and talk to Barry now rather than later. “I’m sure you know the Starling thing was a one-time thing. Do that again and I’ll personally fire you” Barry nods franticly and is about to open his mouth, but David doesn’t stop. “That being said, I’ll give credit where it’s due. And Starling has informed me that you did great work” David turns around and walks towards his office “And do something about that nose Allen!”.  
  
He might not be able to see Barry, but he knows the kid well enough by now, that Barry is likely running his fingers under his nose. Staring at the blood covered fingers, but without really reacting like a normal person would.  
  
Maybe that’s why Barry seem to be such a good CSI? He clearly has the ability to stay happy and smiling, even if there a body covered by cloths right next to him. Barry seem to know just about everything there is to know about his work, and he also dose a great job. Even if it’s slightly unsettling to see how Barry barely shakes and never cries during some of worse murder of suicide cases.  
  
David can’t really figure out if it’s a good or a bad thing. Barry has been that way, since the first time Joe allowed him to see the station. Barry had been an excited 13-year-old back then, staring with wide eyes as they had entered the upstairs lab. Were Barry now worked every day of his young adult life.  
  
Maybe it’s because of his mother murder? The thought has popped up more than once. Maybe Barry is so emotionless around death, because he was forced to be when he lost his mother. When his dad was convicted for murder.  
  
Of course, Barry showed emotion during the interviews at the police station. He was a scared kid.  
  
But a big part of the interviews with papers desperately wanting a comment, had been a very different kid. At least if you asked Joe, who’s daughter Iris went to school with Barry back then.  
  
David enters his office and falls into his work. A message from Joe is waiting, saying that they had check two of the three farms, so far with no luck. David knows Barry is smart, very smart. But hearing that the Mardon brothers are hiding on a farm is almost making him doubt Barry’s sanity. But he was at the crime scene, they didn’t have much to go from. And without Barry, they would likely have even less.  
  
It doesn’t take long before Eddi enters with a file that David has to sign. Barry is sitting in Joe’s chair at his desk, as he does so often when Joe isn’t there. A paper towel to his nose. Iris is standing next to him, a bottle of soda in her hands, and she seems a little less shocked now. Actually, she seems completely like herself by now.  
  
“Should have seem him” Eddi says, clearly noticing how David is looking at Barry and Iris. “He might have gotten kicked, but if he hadn’t run after the thief, I wouldn’t have gotten him”. David can see a slight smile on Eddi’s lips. Everyone knows Barry is a weak, slow, kid. That’s why he’s a CSI and not a detective or a cop. But Eddi also seem to know, just like David, that Barry has more in his than what people see on the surface.  
  
David let’s out a slight laugh “His still better in a lab” he points out. Eddi agrees before leaving the office.  
  
Soon enough David sees Barry leave for his lab, and Iris pulls out her phone. Probably hoping that she can get a ride with Joe later.  
  
For a moment David thinks his wrong about tonight being busy and chaotic. It’s mostly pity crime tonight, and even Joe can’t seem to find anything. That changes very suddenly.  
  
The police radio placed on David office desk has a scratchy sound, it’s only and should probably be replaced. But it works for him, so he doesn’t dear get a new one. Joe’s voice filters through “I need medical, one man down. Shot, bullet to the neck”.  
  
At the same second the sound from the television seem to get a little louder. Maybe it’s the frantic voice of the reporter that caught David’s attention, or maybe it’s a sixth sense. “We are now being told to evacuate the facility”, read lamps are blinking an alarm is blaring in the background on the news. “The storm may have caused a malfunction to the primary Colling systems. Officials are now trying to shut down the particle accelerator, but so far has been unable to regain control of th-“.  
  
No more is said, as the power goes out. David get’s up, and is ready to pull his gun and a flashlight, when out of his window he sees it.  
  
The explosion is big. Lighting up a great part of the otherwise dark city. And the energy in the air feels almost static, as what he guess is some sort of chemical is pushed over the city by the blast. David is quick to leave his office, giving orders to everyone who’s around. Getting someone to Joe is top priority right in this second, but a city without power is bound to end badly. Even more badly, than the drunk people he original feared for the night.  
  
His in the middle of giving orders, telling people to get an emergency generator up and running. Getting people organized to go into the streets, when one of the officers who has been working upstairs comes running. Panic clear on his face.  
  
“Some call an ambulance!” he calls out and someone stumbles for a phone moves after him as the two officers runs up the stairs with fast steps.  
  
David doesn’t know what’s going on, or what has happened. Who’s hurt? And how? “Someone take over here” he calls out, And he then runs, one foot in front of the other. Up the stairs. Catching up with the others. The lap door is open wide, left like that by one of the officers probably.  
  
He barely takes a step inside before he feels water sipe into his shoes. Through his socks, making his feet wet. But that isn’t his focus, because the lab is a mess. He hears a few quiet gasps behind him, other cops having followed him up. But he doesn’t care.  
  
The old metal shelfs that Barry have asked to get replaced around a million times is pushed over. One of them laying down completely, while the other one, just seem so have been pushed out of it’s normal spot. There’s glass on the floor, some of it from chemical containers, but majority of it comes from the now broke sky window. Which explain why the floor is wet. It’s a mixture of water and chemicals. The smell is hitting his nose, and while he might not be a CSI, he knows things are bound to react soon, if not already.  
  
But if he thought the lab was a mess, it was nothing compared to Barry.  
  
The entail shock of the messy lab having left his body, David runs to the boy. His covered in water and chemicals, there’s a slight smell of burned rubber, and there are scares down Barry’s neck and face. His pale, eyes closed, and David is not actually sure if the boy’s breathing.  
  
“Barry!” He screams as he falls to his knees next to him, placing shaky fingers on the pules point of Barry’s neck. And quietly wishing for just a second that he could be as emotionless and careless as Barry, on crime or accident scenes.  
  
His only slightly relieved when he finds a weak pules, beating under Barry’s skin. Someone is already on the phone with the hospital.  
  
David carefully get’s up, before picking up Barry, bridle style, and carries him out into the hallway. While his already covered with burns, some of which is clearly chemical burns, he can’t just let the boy stay there. He would only get worse or more injuries staying in the chemical filled water. And David can’t take the risk.  
  
“Oh my god, Barry!” it’s a female voice. Iris voice. She is running towards them, a cop with her. She falls to her knee’s next to Barry, and next to David himself.  
  
David wants to place a hand on Iris shoulder, but he isn’t sure that’s the right moves. So instead he placed Barry in the recovery position, “He’ll be okay, Iris”. He reassures, verbally. Even if he isn’t so sure himself. He isn’t even sure what happened. Did he fall? Hit his head? Pass out due to low blood sugar? Probably not. If that were the case, he would be awake by now. But then what? Fire? Chemicals? Lightning?  
  
The last things make sense. It explains the broken windows, the burns marks.  
  
He doesn’t have time to think about it more, before someone is coming towards him, Barry and Iris with a stretcher. They are quick to cut through his sweater and opening the shirt he wears underneath. Electrodes are placed on his chest connected to a potable heart monitor. An I.V. with fluids are inserted and an oxygen mask is placed over his face before they move him from the floor to the stretcher.  
  
The trip down the stairs is hard, and slow. But without the powers, the elevator doesn’t work.  
  
David is left watching as Iris follows them out of the station. Cops and officers look on shocked as their unconscious CSI is being rolled out. And David quietly prays, even if he doesn’t believe in god, that Barry Allen, will be alright.


	2. You never know how strong you are, until strong is the only choice you have

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I didn't mean to go almost a week without posting. Went to this summer beach house with my parents and are totally lacking wifi and time to myself that I can use to write. I did watch all the Harry Potter movies, though. I just decided to read the books. So, maybe we will get some Harry Potter fanfiction here at some point. Or a flash/Harry potter fanfiction? No promise though.

Iris isn’t allowed in the back of the ambulance with Barry. Instead she’s placed into the front seat, next to the driver. While the two EMT’s are working in the back, keeping her foster brother stable. It’s chaotic, and the sound of the sirens is making it hard to hear what the people in the back are saying.  
  
Not that she would understand it anyways. Iris isn’t good with science, not like Barry. And that differently includes medicine as well. But then on the other hand, why would she? It’s not like she ever wanted to be a doctor. She wanted to a police and change the world one arrest at the time. But her dad didn’t want that, so instead she became a journalist. Changing the world, one blog post at the time.  
  
Or at least soon that’s what she’ll be doing. Right now, she’s scared, and sad and panicked. Because the city is on blackout, her father is working, and her brother are dying. And the ambulance ride feels way to slow, and long. And she can constantly feel a fear in her stomach, that Barry would die whenever. She doesn’t like to think like that, but she knows it. The theory of lightning is confirmed, both by symptoms by also by the burns littering his body. Like small lightning strikes all the way down his neck and chest.  
  
At some point during the ride, the city is being lite up again. Lights turn on in the windows, and Iris is almost blinding by the light in the mist of her panic. No one says anything, to focused on their work.  
  
When they finally get’s to the hospital, which surprisingly is only around 12 minutes later, things are moving way to quick. Iris jumps out of the ambulance. Another one is holding right in front of her. On the stretcher is that scientist Barry loves. Wells. The person building the accelerator. And Iris only knows it because of the 5 minutes of his presentation early that night before her laptop was stolen.  
  
“Spinal cord trauma” A nurse calls out, pulling the stretcher “He lost all feeling in the lower parts of his body”.  
  
A doctor comes running, “Dr. Well I need you to squeeze my hand” a few seconds later she breaths “that’s a good sign”. But by then Barry is other of the ambulance as well, being pulled up to the doctor. She doesn’t even get a chance to ask what happened before one of the EMT’s are talking.  
  
“24 your old male, struck by lightning” he calls out. The Doctor looks at him, the male EMT is adjusting the oxygen mask on his face.  
  
“I need a full trauma panel! Get him to bay one” and their moving. The doctor running after them through the hospital doors, and Iris hears her mumble to herself “What is happening to our city?”.  
  
The doors are pulled open, violently. Another doctors joins them with the EMT’s while running with the stretcher. “What the hell happened to him?” he asks.  
  
“He was hit by lightning” the male EMT replies. A file is handed to the doctor, who reads over it. Iris wants to look over his should, wants to read it too. Wants to know how things are looking. But they are running to fast, and his to high for her to get a chance.  
  
A female EMT asks the question Iris is to afraid asking herself “How the hell is he still alive?”.  
  
They keep running, not slowing down even when they must move through yet another door. Leading into what Iris can only guess to the bay one, as the doctor earlier called it. There is a bed in the room, but it’s not really a bed. They move him to it on the doctor’s signal. They lift the yellow board that his laying on and his moved.  
  
The I.V. that was placed on the station is being hung on a holder. Different wires and pads are placed on his chest, this time some that are more permanent. A blood pressure cuff is placed on his arm.  
  
“No heartbeat” someone calls out.  
  
Another “CBC chem 24, type and cross four”. But Iris can’t make sense of it, she doesn’t understand what it means. All she knows is that that noise is Barry flatlining and she has to get to him. So she pushes through the door, into bay one.  
  
“Bag him” someone calls. The oxygen mask is removed. Replaced by a different mask, with a red balloon looking bag on. Someone is pushing it, in a stable, calm rhythm.  
  
A nurse is fast to see Iris and pushes her out with a “You can’t be in here”. But Iris is fighting again the nurse. Desperate to get to Barry right then and there.  
  
“I’m his family” she doesn’t mean to scream, but it happens anyways. It doesn’t matter.  
  
“Charging paddles” a doctor says loudly “200!”.  
  
“CLEAR!”.  
  
The paddles are placed on Barry’s bare chest. Iris sees it through the window as the door closes. Barry’s body spasms up once as the charge runs through him. But it doesn’t work. “BARRY!” Iris calls in a panic. She’s sure his gone. Dead. But she isn’t ready to burry him. To put him into the ground. Six feet under.  
  
A nurse placed her in a chair in a waiting room. And then she’s left alone. Unsure of what to do now. Of what to do next. She isn’t a doctor. She can’t do anything. And she isn’t even allowed in the room. Isn’t being told anything. Nothing at all. NOTHING! And she doesn’t handle that well.  
  
Iris’s ear’s rang, a loud ringing filling her ear. Blocking out all other sounds. Her body felt numb, like she couldn’t move. Tear were tripping down her face, down her cheeks, down into her hands, and then down to the floor. And, like if a heavy weight had been placed in the middle of her chest, she couldn’t breathe. Or maybe she was breathing to fast? She knew people did that when they became scared. Hyperventilation. Anxiety attack. She had helped Barry through multiple while he was a teen. Between the days with bullying, and the constant tension hanging over him after his mother’s dead. Anxiety attack were a norm that the West family had to live with, Iris just hadn’t had one of her own. Ever.  
  
How was it she usually helped Barry through them? Breathing? 5 things? She has done it Iso many times, but she can’t really seem to remember how to, so she just gasps for air. Hoping that someone, anyone, is going to notice her. Help her. But she knows that the hospital is busy. Knows that the doctors and nurses are working on people with countless injuries.  
  
The picture of Barry’s burned, and pale body is stuck in her head. The sound of him flatlining won’t go away.  
  
The fear of what’s going to happen to him. Her brother, well foster brother, but they are basically like brother and sister, might die. Did die. Dies. Death. Dead. Gone. Six feet under.  
  
Iris’s panic thoughts leave picture after picture, scene after scene replaying in her head. Barry dying, Barry falling, the lightning. The white, heated, lightning coming from above. From outside. The glass falling to the ground, covering her brother body with cutes that soon enough, hopefully, will turn into scarce. She can almost smell the chemicals that had soaked into his cloth. She might first have gotten upstairs when Captain Sigh, David, had already brought him out… but she did see the mess that lab was left it. And she sat there, on the cold floor waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Next to her brothers lifeless body. Hoping, praying, that he would make it. That he would wake up at any minute, hug her and tell her everything was going to be all right.  
  
Even if it wouldn’t.  
  
Because that’s how things was in the West household. Always had been, and always would be. They would lie to get through their everyday life, weather that included bullying and laughter behind Barry’s back at school, or if that included talking about Iris’s dead mother. That mother she never knew, but she hoped would be proud of who she were now… they would have get through the tough times, just by saying thing were going to be all right.  
  
Iris isn’t so sure anymore. Because that light, the happy, smiling, boy, that one night had entered their home after tragic struck, and somehow made the West house a home again, was gone. And just like Iris’s mother, he wouldn’t come back.  
  
“Mrs. can I help you?” a friendly, calm, female voice pulled Iris out of her panic. Their hand carefully place how Iris’ lower arm, kneeling in front of her, giving her a sense of security.  
“I…” Iris voice were barely above a whisper. It sounded so small, so distant, so different. Not like the confident voice she had always tough herself to use, so people wouldn’t look at her like a helpless girl without a mother. Without a family. “I… could you… my brother…” A could, wet, tear carefully made it’s way out of her eyes, down her cheek. Followed by a stream of tears, drop after drop, after drop.  
  
But the woman, the nurse, understood anyways. “Can you tell me your brothers name Mrs.?” she carefully asked. Smiling with a smile that both said ‘calm down’, ‘I understand’ and ‘I promise it will all be fine’ at the same time.  
  
“Barry Allen” Iris replies in a whisper “That’s what he want’s to be called. Barry Allen… but…” breath, “on paper it’s… Bartholomew Henry Allen”. Iris stumbles over the first name. It’s old. Very old. And Barry hates it. That’s why he goes by Barry, less bullying, less laughter, less whispering. Barry is a better name anyways.  
  
Though, distantly, Iris remembers a time, right when she started to hang out with Barry. Were he went under the name of Bart. An attempt of creating a more normal name out of Bartholomew. Time the first part, of just going by that. It hadn’t felt right. Not for Barry, but neither for Iris who had to call him ‘Bart’. And so soon after he had change it to Barry, and together the two had agreed that it fit him well. Nora and Henry, Barry’s parents had agreed as well. Even Joe, Iris’s dad, who now were a father to Barry as well, had liked it.  
  
The nurse nods give Iris a careful squeeze and leaves Iris alone. Yet again. Probably to find out what happened to Barry, Iris hopes. But really, she can’t be sure. The waiting-room is filled to the brim. Chaos is filling the world, the city, that tonight broke.  
  
If Iris weren’t so panicked, stressed, worried… she might have found it in herself to be happy. Maybe even existed. It’s the opportunity of the year if you want to write. She could have a blog post online in only a few hours, and likely with extra details through her dad. Because Joe, her father, is probably running around out there, right now, making sure the street is somewhat safe. And from Barry, who would run from crime scene to crime scene. Which, there would be a lot of. Iris knows, because this chaos is going to mask and hide the criminal activity.  
  
Barry would be, instead his unconscious in the hospital.  
  
Iris can’t help but wonder if Barry will ever work at the CCPD again. Mainly because, what the chance of him surviving? And secondly because, who’s to say the CCPD can keep his spot open long enough for Barry to recover? If he does recover, that is.  
  
Iris phone is dead, her laptop is in her bag at the desk at the CCPD. If it weren’t she would be googling. ‘What happens when someone is struck by lightning’, ‘What’s the chance some struck by lightning makes a full recovery’.  
  
‘Muscle pains, broken bones, cardiac arrest, confusion, hearing loss, seizures, burns, behavioral changes’ her brain distantly replies to her as she thinks about symptoms. Getting struck by lightning is the kind of thing people google, calculate when they have gotten just a bit to much to drink. Iris did so with Barry just last year. And Barry had used his science powers and told her that 1 in 15,300 people get struck by lightning.  
  
Back then it sounded like something that would never happen to her or anyone she knew. If her past self could see her now, she would know how wrong she was.  
  
The nurse returns. Her face calm, but the reassuring smile that was on her lips just 15 minute earlier is gone. And Iris is about to say ‘Please don’t tell me his gone’ when the nurse starts to speak.  
  
“The doctors her at Central city general hospital is some of the best in the city” she starts, and Iris can almost fill out the rest. ‘They did all they could’ Iris thinks ‘It wasn’t enough’ will likely come after. But it doesn’t. “I won’t lie to you, it’s bad. But they think they got him stable. But…” there it is, Iris thinks. Always a but, sigh. “… his comatose. We can’t say if he’ll wake up”.  
  
It hit her in the stomach, takes her breath away. Her vision goes blurry and she think’s she might faint.  
  
This isn’t the answer she expected. Not at all. But is it better than what she expected? His alive. Her brother is living, at least for now. Stable, but in a coma. Is that better than being dead? And if he doesn’t make up, is that going to be like losing him all over again?  
  
“Can I see him?” Iris asks, holding her breath. Eyes begging to be allowed to see her brother. Sit next to him. Hold his hand, and beg… beg for him to wake up. Smile the way he always does. Tell her about his latest trip to starling city, in the haunt for the impossible. But most of all… tell her that she loves him. Not in the romantic way, because that would be a lie. She won’t lie to him, not this time. But she does love him, like a brother. Like family.  
  
Because he is family.  
  
He fixed the family she grew up in. Took her mothers place and sure, his a brother, not a mother, but that doesn’t matter. He made their family whole. Made her father, their dad, smile again. Hug them a little tighter. Like everything was better now, even if it wasn’t.  
  
The nurse nods shows her the way through the hospital corridors. There’s a windows in the door to Barry’s room, but Iris doesn’t look inside. She just push the door open and walks in. Silentely praying ‘Wake up’.


	3. If you aren’t scared, you aren’t human

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnd last chapater posted. But remember, this is a series. So sub to that, and not just this story. I hope to post some more in the not to soon future! :D I am inspired.

Honestly, Joe isn’t sure what to think when Sigh pulls him aside at the station just hours after the particle accelerator at STAR labs exploded. It had been on the news, of course. The streets were busy, a combination of Ambulances trying to get to injured. Fire trucks getting out to secure damaged buildings. And police everywhere keeping people at bay.  
  
Not to talk about all the people trying to get to their cars, wanting to leave the city. The sooner, the better.  
  
If that had been all, Joe could handle it. He, together with his friends and colleagues had dealt with worse. Like the booming of CCPD two years earlier. Or like the murder of the city mayor. Not to talk about all the cases the CCPD had helped the SCPD with, after the hood or arrow had showed up. That had been interesting, but easy enough to deal with.  
  
But the accident at STAR labs weren’t the only thing Joe had to deal with.  
  
Detective Chyre, Joe’s partner had been shot and died in Joe’s arms earlier that night. By the time medical came, it was too late. There had been so much blood, and all Joe could do was sit and wait. Wait, and wait… for nothing.  
  
And the Mardon brothers, they were dead as well. Their plain being broken into piece by the force of the explosion. Well, at least they were presumed dead. But the plain was too burned and destroyed. There were no body, and their CSI Barry, Barry Allen, Joe’s foster son would be called in the next morning to figure out of the bodies were destroyed.  
  
In the middle of all that Joe had completely forgotten about Iris and Barry. Maybe secretly hoping and expecting them both to be safe either at home, Barry’s apartment or at the station. Barry cramming in some extra work to make up for his lost time the last few days when he was in Starling city. And Iris probably writing and article or blog post about the event of the night. ‘Live from the CCPD’.  
  
It didn’t for a minute get to Joe’s mind that things might not be that simple. And really, were they ever?  
  
Joe’s wifi, Iris mother had left. Joe had told his daughter that she died. Barry’s mother had been murder by his father, in front of the small boy, yet he was completely sure some man in lightning killed her. ‘The man in yellow’. As Barry had named him.  
  
Yeah, things were never that simple in west household.  
  
“Joe” David said, pushing him onto the couch in his office. “Joe, I need you to listen very carefully. Can you do that?” He asks. Joe nods. “There’s been an accident…” and that’s when Joe knows, things aren’t that simple. That’s when he really knows. “… Barry was struck by lightning. Iris is with him at the hospital. Look, we don’t know the details, but Barry’s in a coma”.  
  
It’s like Joe’s brain is suddenly going a mile and hour. Wanting to ask a million questions about Barry. Because, oh GOD Barry is hurt. And Iris. What about Iris? Was she hurt too? Were where they during the explosion? What is that expression on David’s face? And…  
  
… And Joe isn’t sure were to start. Were to end. His thoughts are going I circles and he can’t find head or tail on any of it.  
  
There’s only one thing he knows… “I need to go” He says. Suddenly. “I need to see him. I need to see my son” Joe’s voice breaks, but only slightly. His trained to deal with chaos. It’s a part of his job. And even if this isn’t work, if this is personal, a part of him tells him he has to be strong. For Iris. For Barry. For himself, maybe most of all.  
  
“Of course,” David nods “I can get Eddi to drive you. I don’t think you should go alone”.  
  
Joe doesn’t even have time to protest. Or maybe he does, he isn’t sure. Because suddenly his sitting in Eddi’s car, driving through the city, that is broken and dead, and chaotic in a new way. A way Joe can’t explain.  
  
It’s not really dead. He knows that. But there is this silence. This weird, quietness. Joe isn’t sure if Eddi can hear it too. But really, do you even hear silence? Maybe it’s just Joe who hears it.  
  
He doesn’t ask.  
  
Just sinks a little deeper into the car seat, as it really hits him.  
  
Chyre is dead.  
  
The particle accelerator exploded.  
  
Barry is in a coma.  
  
He keep repeating those three things inside his head on the way to the hospital. Not quite believing the situation. Not wanting to at least. Because he knows at least two of the things. He saw it, held his partner he the light left is eyes. And he saw the explosion, saw the damage as he was transported to the station.  
  
And he knows Barry is in a coma. Captain Singh. David. Wouldn’t lie about that. But he can’t believe it the same way he can with the two first things. Because he haven’t seen it. They could be wrong.  
  
It is wrong. It has to be.  
  
But it isn’t wrong. He knows that the second they pull up in front of the hospital.  
  
Joe pushes the car door open with more force than he intends too. The car is old, he knows that, Eddi knows that. That’s why is the handle breaks a little. Get’s stuck. Eddi brushes it off, hands over Iris bag to Joe and push Joe out the car.  
  
Joe slowly goes towards the doors to the hospital. Iris is waiting just inside, hit him right in the chest as soon as his inside. Pulls him close, and he does the same to her. Feels the heat of her body, smells her hair which smells like peaches. New shampoo then. He can feel her tears as they slowly seep into his shirt. He can feel his own eyes tear up. His vision get’s blurry and the tears leaves trails down his face. Drips down into Iris’ hair. But none of them care. They just stand like that until Eddi joins them, having found a parking spot for the car.  
  
It's also Eddi who ends up talking to the people in the reception (Do you call it that at a hospital), to figure out what room Barry is in.  
  
Iris fills Joe in on the details. Cries even harder as she tells him about how he flatlined. About how his body is covered by burn marks. The read marks lingering his skin, showing them were the lightning traveled through his body. About how his hands are the worst, but also how it goes all the way of his neck and back head.  
  
But no matter how much Iris tells, it doesn’t prepare Joe for what his about to see.  
  
Because while Iris describes things, it’s something different so see it for yourself. But really Joe knew the way before stepping into the room.  
  
The door creeks as they enter. Iris carefully finds the chair she was sitting in earlier. Eddi stays out, maybe who goes back to the station. No one say anything. Doesn’t try to. So all Joe can hear is the bibbing of a heart monitor, and carefully windy sound matching the chest movement of Barry’s pale body.  
  
At least, Joe thinks it’s pale. But he isn’t sure.  
  
Because Iris is right. Barry’s body is covered by red markings. Down his arms, and neck and face. If Joe could see rest of the body, his sure it’s in a similar state.  
  
It’s almost a fern like pattern like you might see on a plant, or melted ice on the window that has frozen down again. And while Joe differently aren’t good with science, but he does recognize it as Lichtenberg figures, like Barry would have called them.  
  
But the marks is nothing compared to everything else.  
  
There’s an IV placed in Barry’s left arm. Which, Joe knows it normal. The human body needs fluid. But Joe has never seen an IV quite like this one before. At the base it’s normal enough, securely placed so it can’t easily be ripped out. But there are two small lines with cabs running from the IV. One of them is hook up to the IV bag. Joe doesn’t know what’s in it. And the other one, Joe guess it used for injecting medicine of some sort, when needed. But at the moment, it’s closed.  
  
An oxygen reader is placed on his index finger. A blood pressure cuff is placed around his upper arm. Pads that tracks his pules is placed on his chest.  
  
What really scares Joe, is the breathing tube. Joe has seen a lot in his life. Seen Iris get born, seen bodies from people who have been shot, or in other way killed. He has seen Iris with an IV when she got her appendix removed. He has seen Barry’s faced covered in burses. But this is so different.  
  
The tube is place inside the mouth of his son. Down his throat and into his lungs. And then it’s connected to two, bigger, blue tube that goes to the machine making the air sound. Barry’s mouth is hanging slightly open around it. It’s securely placed, and a small white bond is placed around the tube and around the back of Barry’s head to keep it securely placed.  
  
It should scare Joe the way it does. It’s to help his sun recover, remove some of the strain on his body as he heals. It’s normal, and his alive. His hearth is beating. Joe knows that.  
  
But he can’t quite believe that, seeing Barry there in the way to big hospital bed. Covered by a light blue hospital gown and legs under a thin, lapis blue, blanket.  
  
He looks thin. Deadly thin. As he lays there, pale, and still. Nothing like the Barry he saw at the crime scene earlier that day. Nothing like that Barry that talked about his trip to starling all the way back to the station, so unfaced by the fact he had been just steps away from a dead body covered by plastic. Unfaced by the fact he had to do science on cow poop, to find a thief. Two thief’s.  
  
Because laying there, the only prove of life Joe can see is heart monitor bibbing. And the breathing tube doesn’t help the fear, doesn’t help the picture, the Barry is gone.  
  
If he was at least breathing on his own, Joe might be able to imagen that Barry was just hurt. Or had to have a minor surgery.  
  
But Joe can’t.  
  
So instead he takes a chair from the corner of the room, roles it over to Barry’s bed side and sites down on the opposite side to Iris. Carefully taking his hands, holding it, and feeling the warmth from his skin flow into his own. And the other way around too.  
  
He see’s Iris do the same. Careful of the tubes.  
  
And then they sit there. Quietly. Because neither knows what to say. How to react. Or how to deal with this. Because this doesn’t quite feel real yet to any of them.  
  
It’s Eddi who breaks the silence a little later. Joe doesn’t know how much time has passed, by Eddi has changed. His no longer in his uniform like he was earlier. His wearing a gray suit. There’s bags under his eyes, and when Joe looks out he can see the darkness has fallen over Central City again.  
“Sorry for disturbing, I just though I would drop off a bag of cloth for you Joe. And Some Coffee form jittter’z” He carefully steps into the room. Iris getting to her feet thanking Eddi for the coffee.  
  
A cup is pushed into Joe’s hands, “Thanks” he says quietly. “Thanks Eddi”.  
  
“It’s no problem at all” Eddi assures them both, “Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you two. I know this situation must be hard” he reminds them, before letting the bag of cloth drops to the floor, squeeze one of Barry’s hands lightly. Whispers a low prayer, which surprise Joe, because Eddi doesn’t believe, and leaves.  
  
It’s just Joe and Iris.  
  
It should be Joe, Iris and Barry.  
  
Joe prays too.


End file.
